Those who have known Byrraju Ramalinga Raju, the prime accused in the multi-crore accounting fraud of erstwhile IT giant Satyam Computers only as a scamster, do not know his other side.
He turned out to be a poet, that too, a Telugu poet. His wife Nandini Raju brought out his other facet by publishing a book of his 56 poems, written during various phases of his life. Titled “Nalo Nenu” (I within myself), the book presents him as a thinker, philosopher and a man in search a new world. The poems cover various subjects including philosophy, science, human frailty and nature’s ways.
Though Raju claimed in the foreword that some of the poems were written when he was just 20 years old and some others in the last 35 years in various phases, a few poems give the impression that he might have scribbled them when he was in the jail after the scam broke out.
Nandini says in her introductory comment that Raju had interest in wide range of subjects.
“When we were newly married, he used to show me his poems. I would argue with him why he needed to bother himself with such weighty issues. When I read them again recently, new meanings suggested themselves to me,” she said.
In several poems, Raju expresses regrets for his actions. In one poem, he curses himself for trusting the people.
“It is betrayal everywhere. But the great betrayal is nothing but self-betrayal. You betray yourself by committing blunders deliberately, ignoring your own experiences,” Raju says.
